'Independence Day 2': Sequel to Will Smith blockbuster in the works

Fans of the Sci-Fi action blockbuster Independence Day are in for a treat. Sixteen years later, filmmakers Dean Delvin and Ronald Emmerich are currently working on a sequel.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the duo discussed the possibilities of bringing Independence Day back to the big screen.

“I can tell you that Roland and I have been working together for the first time in 11 years and we’re every excited about the idea of doing it,” Devlin said. “Whether or not we can make this happen, if we can get all the pieces to come together, that’s gonna be challenging. But creatively, for the very first time since we did the original, I feel we have a worthy concept, a worthy path to go.”

“We resisted doing the sequel for years because we still wanted to honor the first one. The first one gave us all careers, and we really love that movie and loved the experience,” Devlin explained. “We didn’t want to make a movie because it was financially a good idea, we only wanted to do it when we had an idea and a concept that creatively felt like it honored the first one — that it felt like an organic sequel as opposed to ‘let’s just go make some more money.”

The summer blockbuster opened on July 3, 1996 to $50.2 million domestically. To date it has grossed $817.4 million worldwide. Independence Day is Will Smith’s highest grossing movie domestically earning $306.2 million, and the film established him as box office icon.

There is no official timeline for the Independence Day sequel, but the process of assembling stars from the original’s cast has begun. “We’re beginning a long process of talking to everybody. We’ll just have to see what happens,” Delvin said.

In October of last year, New York magazine reported that Fox was planning back-to-back Independence Day sequels, but was having difficulty negotiating Smith’s salary. “Fox started working on structuring a deal to sign him [Smith] back in early 2009, but the world’s last bankable action star was seeking $50 million to shoot both ID2 and ID3 back-to-back, and Fox balked at so large a price tag in combination with Emmerich’s own hefty salary demands to direct.”